Category Archives: historic cars

Regent Street Motorshow – Sat 2nd Nov 2013

1904 Oldsmobile. 1 cylinder, 7hp. Note the boat like tiller instead of a steering wheel!
1904 Oldsmobile. 1 cylinder, 7hp. Note the boat like tiller instead of a steering wheel!

This event has been held annually for a number of years now to coincide with the weekend of the London To Brighton Veteran Car Run. To show the cars Regent Street is closed is closed off between Oxford Circus and Picadilly on the Saturday to allow a range of the veteran cars participating in Sunday’s run to be viewed at close quarters. Their owners also tend to turn up clad in matching period costume which makes for quite a spectacle.

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911 2.2S Engine Rebuild – Part 10.5: Part 11 Coming Soon – Honest!

Wed 29th Oct 2013

Throttle Bodies Missing In Action

Where are my throttle bodies?
Where are my throttle bodies?

Sorry folks – I had hoped to be reporting back on the results from dyno testing today but Steve at Jaz has still not managed to retrieve the throttle bodies. It looks like the engineer working on them is missing presumed on half-term holidays.

The good news from Steve is that the fan is sorted and ready for him to pick up en route to BS Motorsport for the dyno test. He’ll fit it before plugging the engine into their test cell.

Continue reading 911 2.2S Engine Rebuild – Part 10.5: Part 11 Coming Soon – Honest!

Question: When is an Aston not an Aston?

Aston Martin Spridget
Aston Martin Spridget

 

Answer: When it’s a Spridget!

My old mate and fellow petrolhead Pete who works out in Oman sent me a link to to a really funny advert on Dubizzle – a Dubai based website. The ad was for a “Very special classic car –  1969 Aston Martin”.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but trying to make a 69 Spridget (MG Midget or Austin Healey Sprite) look like an Aston Martin is stretching imitation to its limits.

Continue reading Question: When is an Aston not an Aston?

Pimp My 911

Early cars? Spot the 964!!!
Early cars? Spot the 964!!!

The 911 is a very peculiar beast. Without going all Clarkson by railing about the bonkers rear engined VW Beetle layout – the most peculiar thing about the 911 is the length of time it’s been in production.

With 50 years of continuous modification the 911 offers seemingly endless opportunities to update or backdate cars according to personal taste, prevailing fashion or market values at the time.

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Brooklands

As the weather was much better than forecast I went down to Brooklands early yesterday morning. It’s a bit of an anorak’s paradise but there is some interesting stuff there and the remaining sections of the banking are quite poignant.

the old workshops

The old workshops and sheds contained some nice old cars & bikes and there were also some interesting original and replica planes in the big hanger. John Cobb’s 23 litre Napier Railton is one of my favourite cars – it set a Brooklands outer circuit lap record of 143 mph. There was also a fantastic Alfa streamliner that was originally designed by Vittorio Jano to challenge the all-conquering Silver Arrows but he was sacked by Alfa before it was completed. It disappeared and then resurfaced again in 1978. It’s been restored back in Italy and looks fantastic with a mid-engine, central driving position and passenger seats either side. Shame it never received the V12 engine it was intended to have.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59728935@N07/6626490007/
http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/233224/alfa_romeo_aerodinamica_spider.html

The Wellington bomber fished out of Loch Ness was also a bit special.